


Matriarchy

by bitboozy



Series: Domesticated [42]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Gen, Romance, This is a love story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:00:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23948062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitboozy/pseuds/bitboozy
Summary: A figure from Ellie's past reappears and gets into Alec's head.
Relationships: Alec Hardy & Ellie Miller, Alec Hardy/Ellie Miller
Series: Domesticated [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1550554
Comments: 85
Kudos: 125





	1. Chapter 1

There’s only a sliver of sunlight streaming in through the curtains when Alec walks back into the bedroom with Aila on his hip. The seven-month-old is extremely bouncy, thrilled to begin another day of being showered with attention. Alec yawns, closing the door behind him again.

“Yayayayayaya,” Aila says, trying to bring a fistful of his t-shirt to her mouth.

“Mm-hm.”

Ellie is splayed across the bed on her back, limbs everywhere, now invading his side as well. She has thrown most of the covers off in the four minutes he’s been gone, revealing her t-shirt and shorts. Almost identical to what he’s wearing.

With a mischievous grin, he places Aila gingerly on the bed beside her, then stands where he is, watching. She painstakingly crawls over the blankets, then, using Ellie’s ribcage, pulls herself up to sit on her knees.

Ellie grunts, then sniffles, crinkling her nose.

Aila starts slapping Ellie impatiently, bouncing on her knees.

Ellie squirms a bit. “Mm. Babe, if you’re trying to get me to shag you, you’re doing a very bad job of it.”

Alec laughs silently, bringing his hand to his mouth. Aila starts pulling on Ellie’s shirt and banging her head against her stomach.

Ellie frowns, eyes still closed.

Then Aila scoots herself over a bit and starts grasping at Ellie’s breasts, eventually bringing her mouth down onto one of them, trying to suck at her nipple through the thin fabric of her t-shirt.

Ellie opens one suspicious eye, then the other.

“Ohohoho, nice try, baby.” She scoops Aila up, holding her above her face. The baby laughs infectiously. “Very subtle.” She lowers her down and smooches her cheeks over and over as Aila tries to bite her nose.

“You’re mean,” Ellie says to Alec, sliding up to sit against the headboard. “I was having the loveliest dream.”

Ellie lifts her t-shirt and cradles an apparently ravenous Aila to her breast. Alec sits down on the bed beside them with another yawn.

“Naughty, I hope.”

“No, in the dream I was sleeping,” she replies. “I was dreaming about sleeping.”

Alec blinks at her, then shakes his head.

“It was glorious.”

“Well.” He shrugs. “Back to reality and the tiny human sucking on your tits.”

Ellie sighs. “Yes, thank you.” She leans her head back and closes her eyes. “You do realize its Saturday.”

“Mm. The tiny human does not.” He pulls the cover up over himself and settles back down on his pillow.

She opens her eyes. “Are you going back to sleep?!”

“Mm-hmm,” he murmurs. “I changed her. Now you feed her. Fair’s fair.”

He closes his eyes before he can see her inevitable scowl.

Shortly thereafter, once Ellie has finished feeding and burping the baby, she places her next to Alec’s face on the bed. Aila yanks at his beard and sinks her gums into his chin.

Alec groans loudly.

“Fair’s fair.”

*

Later that morning, Ellie goes to Tom’s football match while Alec goes to Fred’s. He has a sleeping baby strapped to his chest and is astonished at her ability to sleep through the noise of rowdy six-year-olds and cheering parents. But she is fast asleep with her mouth slightly open, and as a result _he_ is the sexiest dad in Broadchurch.

All the other mums pass by with exclamations like: “Oh, isn’t she gorgeous,” “Aren’t you the baby whisperer,” “How sweet you two are.”

Every once and a while when there’s a break in the match, Fred comes running at Alec full speed for his water bottle. Each time, he shouts something like, “DID YOU SEE? DID YOU SEE ME?”

He makes sure to bounce her now and then, and stroke her hair, thus she stays asleep against all odds.

A few fields over, Ellie is cheering on Tom surrounded by dads. Dads, she has learned, are much more likely to attend the matches of the older boys than the younger. Too difficult for them to watch the younger boys muck about. The older boys they can get invested in.

Ellie has her hair up and wears jean and a loose v-neck top. She wears her sunglasses though it is only partly sunny.

There’s a fair amount of “All right, El?” greetings as the dads pass her by, more than they need to, looking her up and down. She keeps it friendly and otherwise ignores them. Even she will admit her arse looks quite nice in these jeans.

Jim from the caravan park walks around her lasiviously and mutters a _bloody great tits_ just in earshot. Sam the Bartender, who is a few feet away supporting his fatherless nephew, responds with an “Oi! Bugger off!” and all but chases him away.

“My white knight,” Ellie laughs, tossing a grateful smile his way.

Sam shrugs. As a barkeep, it’s all in a day’s (or night’s) work.

“Should bother me more than it does,” she admits. “But I find myself appreciating it, as a forty-four-year-old mum. Not very feminist of me.”

“You go on and appreciate it, then,” Sam says. “And I’ll be there to chase ‘em off so’s they know their place.”

Ellie smiles. “Deal.”

After the match, Tom heads off to celebrate their victory with his teammates. Ellie walks down to the next field, where the six-year-olds are still finishing up their match. She finds Alec on the sidelines, a few not so subtle mums hovering nearby, stealing glances. She comes up behind him with a hand at his back.

“Hello there, handsome.”

She kisses the corner of his mouth, but then he kisses her properly. Perhaps only for the benefit of the women surrounding them.

“How was Tom’s match?”

“They won.” She pushes herself up on her tiptoes to see Aila, who is facing the other way. “Still asleep?”

“Dead to the world.”

Ellie smiles and strokes the baby’s face. “Well she’d be daft to give up her favourite spot on the whole earth,” she remarks. “How are the little ones faring?”

“Hard to say if _anyone’s_ winning, really.”

She squints, looking out at the match. “Fair enough.”

Then she rubs his back as she glances around at the other mums, with forced polite smiles and nods to them.

“Giving you trouble?” She asks quietly.

“I’m right irresistable with an infant strapped to me,” he replies with a crooked smile.

Ellie straightens her posture haughtily, looking out at the match again. “I got a _bloody great tits_ today.”

Alec frowns, hard, his eyes narrowed. “From _who_.”

“Oh, who can remember, they just buzz around me like flies,” she replies coyly. “Sam shoos them off for me.”

He turns to her. “Sam the Bartender?”

“Yeah, keeps ‘em in line.”

He growls unintelligibly under his breath. She can hide her smirk no longer, then tugs on his arm.

“Come now, neither of us has any reason to be jealous,” Ellie assures him. “They can _look_. But that’s _all_ they get to do.” She smiles slyly at the women around them.

Alec is still frowning.

She sighs. “I mean for god sakes, you’ve got _my_ baby strapped to your chest.”

“Our baby.”

“I’m making a point here.”

She holds on to his arm and kisses it. “Just have a little fun with it, will you? And then come home and shag _me_ , as you always do.”

“Fun when they’re lookin’ at me,” he grumbles. “Don’t like ‘em lookin’ at _you_.”

“Oh dear, is your inner patriarch coming out?” She quips. “ _Fair’s fair_. Remember?”

He groans again. He’s gone full grumpy, she can see, and there’s only one way to get him back.

“What do you say tonight…” She tugs on his sleeve and presses herself against him. “I be the football mum, you be the football dad, and we – “

“ _El_. You _are_ the football mum and I _am_ the football dad.”

She tilts her head to the side and thinks. “Footballer’s wife and footballer?”

He bites the inside of his cheek. “…Fine.”

She kisses his cheek. “I’ll buy something tarty at the shops.”

With that, she starts to saunter away, leaving him staring at her very nice arse as she goes.

*

They make it home at the same time. Ellie’s car pulls into the drive just before Alec’s does. She grabs two bags of groceries out of the boot as Fred comes running out of Alec’s backseat.

“Mumma, we won!” He exclaims. “And I kicked the ball two times!”

“Ah! Well done, you!”

She walks toward the front door with him, keys in hand. Alec extricates Aila, now wide awake, from her car seat and follows.

“Did anyone actually win?” Ellie whispers to him as Fred kicks off his shoes and runs upstairs. “Change out of those clothes right away!” She shouts after him.

“Nah,” Alec replies, shutting the door behind them. “Not one point was scored the whole match.”

“Brilliant.”

Daisy is in the kitchen with her laptop, eating a late breakfast. To her credit, she immediately gets up to help Ellie with the groceries.

Alec places Aila in her high chair. “You just gettin’ up for the day?” He questions Daisy, judgement plain in his voice.

“Dad, it’s _Saturday_.”

“How late were you up last night?”

Alec and Daisy take turns putting things away in the cupboard. Ellie pulls a teething ring out of the freezer and hands it to Aila.

“Was watching a new murder mystery series on Netflix, keeps starting the next episode before I can say no!” Daisy explains. “Did either of the boys win their matches?”

Ellie puts the kettle on then sits down next to Aila. “Tom won his, Fred only thinks he won.”

Alec takes two mugs out of the cupboard and puts a teabag in each. Daisy goes back to the table and closes her laptop, then brings her dishes to the sink.

“Leaving so soon?” Ellie asks. She predicted this, but knows Alec will be annoyed.

“Got to get myself sorted and meet some mates at the cinema.”

Alec leans against the counter, arms folded across his chest. “Will we see you for dinner?”

“Dunno,” Daisy replies, heading for the door. “I’ll text.”

“Makin’ that sausage and leek mash pie you love!” He calls after her.

Ellie looks at him sympathetically, a little pitifully. “Alec.”

“What.” He regards her grumpily.

“I love you,” she says.

He grumbles and heads for the door. “Goin’ to check the post.”

Just as the kettle whistles, he’s gone. Ellie gets up to pour the water.

“You’d better get used to this, little girl,” Ellie says to Aila. “Daddy’s going to be exactly like this with you in seventeen years. You think he’s grumpy _now_ , just wait. You’ll be the last one to flee the nest, his wee little baby, he’s going to be _unbearable_.”

Aila chews on the teething ring with her gums. “Babababababa.”

Alec returns with a pile of post in hand. Ellie places a steaming mug of tea down on the kitchen island in front of him, then returns to the table with hers.

“ _I_ like sausage and leek mash pie.” She looks over and flutters her eyelashes at him.

He glances at her incredulously, then looks back at the letters in hand. “You’ll eat anythin’.”

Ellie gasps, feigning offense, and looks at Aila with her mouth wide open in shock. Aila giggles. “ _So grumpy_ , Daddy.” She takes a sip of her tea.

Alec is holding various letters far from his face, squinting at them.

“Go get your bloody glasses,” Ellie says, not needing to look at him to know exactly what’s happening.

“Somethin’ here…” Alec says, holding onto an envelope and putting the rest down. “Return address _Miller_. In Cardiff.”

Ellie puts her tea down. “It’s all right,” she says quickly, turning in her chair to face him. “Just Joe’s mum.”

Alec stares at her. “ _Just Joe’s mum_?!”

“Take a breath. I’ll explain everything.”

He continues simply to stare at her.

“Take a sip of that tea.”

He stares.

“Do it or I won’t say a word,” Ellie insists.

With a heavy, dramatic sigh, Alec takes a sip of tea, then takes a deep breath. Then stares at her again.

“Every once in a great while Joe’s mum sends along a card for the boys. Been doing it for years. She has my permission to do so, though I think she knows I don’t pass them on,” she says. “She --- I didn’t know what to do, about her, about Joe’s family, after it all happened. I couldn’t blame them, but I also couldn’t… _trust_ them. To not take his side or believe him. So we’ve kept our distance but it didn’t feel right to cut her out entirely. Though I s’pose I have in the end.”

Alec is flummoxed. He gesticulates briefly with his hands before folding his arms across his chest again. “Why don’t I know this? Christ’s sake, Ellie, why is this the first I’m hearing of this?”

“I wasn’t keeping it from you, I swear I wasn’t keeping it from you,” she insists. Aila drops her teething ring. Ellie picks it up, wipes it off with her shirt, and hands it back to her. “I honestly hardly think of it. The cards from Alys are so random. I open them, glance over the card, if there’s money I put it in their little savings account and that’s the end of. She’s never called or emailed or been a nuisance of any kind, this is the long and short of it.”

Alec is quiet. After a moment, he takes his tea and quietly moves over to the table, sitting on Aila’s other side. Aila is delighted, smiling back and forth at both of her parents obliviously. He automatically reaches his hand out to her, resting it on the tray of the high chair, and Aila grabs onto it.

“There’s never been any word from Joe?”

Ellie frowns. “Of course not. I’d have told you.”

“And the boys don’t know?”

“Tom knows, sort of. Reckon he’s forgotten though. When it first started, I asked him what he wanted to do. He didn’t really know, he – you know, he loved his gran but he didn’t know what he was meant to do. He didn’t want anyone to be cross with him. So I’ve just always handled it myself,” she answers.

“You don’t talk to her?”

“No.”

“She has our address. _Our_ address, not the old house,” Alec points out.

“We had the post forwarded. It wasn’t a secret.”

He looks down at the table, then over at Aila, who is using her grip on his hand to bang the tray with it.

Ellie leans forward. “Love, I _promise_ you, it was just never on my mind enough to think to bring it up with you.”

He nods, but keeps his eyes on Aila, avoiding Ellie’s gaze.

“I have to go. Catching a yoga class with Beth,” she says quietly.

She gets up, kisses Aila’s head, then Alec’s head. “See you later.”

*

After Ellie’s yoga class, they switch off parenting duties and Alec goes for a run. A long one. So long that Fred and Tom start to complain about being hungry and Ellie worries she is going to have to start dinner herself, which is the last thing anyone wants. Alec returns around 6:30, sweaty and exhausted.

Ellie meets him at the bottom of the stairs with Aila on her hip. “Go shower please, then you need to start dinner.”

“Uh huh.” He wipes his sweaty forehead and jogs up the stairs.

Ellie goes to join Fred in the dining room, where he is hard at work on another massive Lego project. She places Aila down on the floor and watches as she crawls around aimlessly, exploring.

“Mumma."

“Yes, love.”

“When I grow up I’m gonna live at the top of the highest building in the whole world,” Fred announces, separating his legos by color.

“Oh, are you?”

“I’m gonna see EVERYTHING. I’m gonna see THE WHOLE WORLD from up there.”

“Very into the whole world at the moment, eh?”

“I’m gonna see the whole world from my couch,” he explains matter-of-factly.

“Sounds heavenly.”

Aila bumps into the leg of Fred’s chair.

“Oof,” Ellie says. “You’re all right, lovely, go on.”

Aila thinks about this for a moment, considers crying, then simply crawls in another direction.

“That’s my girl.”

“When you come visit me,” Fred says. “We will drink wine and eat caviar.”

Ellie nods. “Uh huh, and just how do you plan to afford this luxurious lifestyle then?”

“I’m gonna sell my body and everything in it except for my brain and put my brain in a robot and live forever.”

*

Daisy makes it home in time for dinner, which lifts Alec’s spirits considerably. He’s less thrilled when she goes out again after, but it has at least appeased him. Fred makes them watch _Zootopia_ and they let him stay up far too late, but when he does pass out, he passes out hard. Aila cries each time they try to put her in her crib, clinging to either Alec’s or Ellie’s clothing, whichever one is bravely making the attempt. Ellie nurses her for a while, continuing long after Aila has sucked her dry. Finally she falls asleep, still trying to nurse. 

“Have to start sleep training her soon,” Ellie says as she walks into their bedroom. “Get serious about it.”

She stops short when she finds Alec standing there in a football jersey and shorts. Her jaw drops, her hand raising to cover her mouth.

“Where on earth did you get _that_?”

“Tom,” Alec replies. He turns around and it reads BECKHAM on the back.

“Oh my god.” Ellie tries to stifle her giggles.

“Come on then,” he says tersely. “Where’s that – whatever you bought today.”

“Oh.” She looks at him wide-eyed then nods. “We’re still – all right then, okay.” She scurries over to her closet and grabs the bag from the shop. “Hang on.” Then she disappears into the loo.

Alec sits down on the edge of the bed and waits.

“Tom didn’t ask _why_ you wanted to borrow it?” Ellie calls to him.

“Nah. He’s stopped askin’ questions.”

When Ellie emerges from the loo, she’s wearing a bright red mini-dress. She’s all legs and tits. And she’s quickly thrown on a bit of red lipstick on her way out. Alec stares at her like he’s had the wind knocked out of him.

“So does this make me Posh Spice?!” She puts her hands on her hips and looks down at herself. “This is stupid, isn’t it?”

Slowly Alec stands. “Nooo…” He shakes his head.

She looks up. “Posh Spice would never wear red anyway.”

Now standing before her, Alec reaches around for her arse and pulls her against him. Without a word he kisses her hard, not wasting any time in pushing her back toward the bed. Her legs hit the bed and he lifts up her thighs, causing her to fall backwards onto the mattress.

“ _Oh_.” Ellie gasps. “Right to it, then.”

He discards his shorts and the briefs underneath in one motion then swiftly crawls over her. His lips travel from her throat down to her breasts, pausing to leave a mark in between them. His hands slide up her dress and he groans with surprise and delight when he finds she’s not wearing any knickers at all. He hikes her dress up and strokes between her thighs for a moment before unceremoniously pushing inside her.

“So much for roleplay,” she grumbles, wondering why exactly she had to buy a dress for _this_. “And foreplay.”

Alec pulls off the football jersey and tosses it away, then covers her entire body with his, burying his face in her neck. It’s then she realizes that he’s cross with her, that he wishes he weren’t, and this is how he’s chosen to deal with it. She knows because he doesn’t look at her, he barely touches her. The only connection between them is the fact that he’s inside her.

Ordinarily she might be a bit miffed by this, but despite his questionable motivations, it feels _so_ good, like an itch she didn’t know needed scratched so badly. He’s slamming into her so hard she can hardly keep her legs wrapped around his waist; they flail about a bit instead. She gasps _fuck, fuck, fuck_ over and over as he merely grunts into neck breathlessly. Neither of them is going to last long, that’s painfully clear. Ellie thinks about the football mums and wonders how many of _them_ are getting relentlessly railed by their husbands in a house with four kids.

Then she remembers Alec is her _husband_. And she smiles. Then she comes. Hard. He follows almost immediately, his entire body shuddering on top of her, gasping for air.

“Jesus christ,” Ellie swears under her breath, her body going completely limp beneath him.

He does not move until he’s caught his breath, then in one swift movement he pulls out of her and moves to sit on the edge of the bed with his back to her. Leaving her literally and figuratively cold.

Ellie takes a moment to catch her own breath. And to recalibrate. He never pulls away from her like this after sex. She sits up and crawls over to him on her knees, settling behind him. She squeezes his arms and kisses his shoulder blade.

“I know you’re cross with me,” she says quietly, then continues her trail of kisses to the other shoulder blade.

“Not cross with you.”

“Alec. I know you are. Christ’s sake, acting like I don’t know you as well as _you_ do.”

He’s quiet. She wraps her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder. She has a hand flat on his chest, thumb stroking over his pacemaker scar. She waits.

“Don’t like all this thinkin’ about Joe all of a sudden,” he admits in a low mumble.

She kisses his neck. “ _I’m_ not thinking about Joe.”

He merely sighs. His body is tense, not giving in to her, she can feel him holding out.

“Sweetheart,” Ellie says softly.

Something in his shoulders loosens. She takes advantage of this and holds him tighter.

“Joe’s got nothing to do with this,” she continues. “His mother sends the boys cards. Two, three times a year maybe. They don’t even _read_ them. That’s it. That’s all. Never a word from Joe, never anything suspicious or worth concern.”

He grunts. But he starts to lean back into her.

She runs her index finger along the inside of his ear, then kisses behind his lobe. “ _You’re_ their father. You’re the one they adore, the one who takes care of them. They know that.”

She feels him almost nod.

“And you’re _my_ husband. Yeah?”

He nods now. She kisses his ear.

“Come here then.”

She starts to move back and guides him back with her. He turns and follows, when she lays back down, he lays his head on her stomach, holding onto her thigh.

“There we are,” Ellie says with a smile, stroking his hair. “It was a bloody good shag, though not what I expected.”

A single note of laughter escapes him, but she can feel him smile for a second. “Sorry.”

“Shh.” She rubs his shoulders with her other hand, it’s as far as she can reach. “I’m sorry I didn’t think to tell you about it sooner. But I swear to you it wasn’t calculated in the least.”

His hand slides up and down her thigh. She closes her eyes.

“I know,” he mumbles. Then: “’s a great dress.”

Ellie grins. He kisses her stomach through the red fabric.

“Look fuckin’ _hot_ in it.”

She laughs out loud.

“Don’t want anyone else to ever see you in it though.”

“No,” she agrees, massaging the back of his neck. “Only for you.”

After a bit of quiet, Ellie feels him start to squirm a bit. She opens her eyes just as he lifts himself up.

“Need to see what it says.”

“What?”

He crawls off the bed, going for his dressing gown. “The card. Need to open it.”

Ellie sits up and moves to the edge. “Never says much of anything,” she insists. “ _Thinking of you xx_. Things like that.”

He goes for the door. She grabs her own dressing gown and follows him. As they move through the hallway, Aila starts crying from her room. Ellie pauses, briefly torn between going to the baby and following Alec down to the kitchen. She sighs, considering the consequences of waking Fred, and ducks into the nursery. Aila is sitting with her face pressed against the bars like she’s plotting a prison break. Ellie quickly scoops her up and continues downstairs.

Alec is standing at the kitchen island staring into the open card when Ellie appears in the doorway with a drowsy, puzzled little baby in her arms.

“Well?”

Alec glances up at her, then down at the card again.

“What?”

He tosses it down on the counter. “She wants to see them.”

Ellie blinks at him.

“She wants to come here.”

***


	2. Chapter 2

“It actually says that?”

Ellie shifts the baby from one hip to the other, staring at Alec quizzically. He nods, then hands her the card. Her eyes flicker over it from top to bottom, once then twice, and she hands it back to him.

Aila chews on Ellie’s dressing gown. “Ba ba ba.” Then yawns.

Ellie is still, looking at the floor. After a moment, Alec kicks himself into gear. He reaches out to touch her arm.

“Come on.”

With a hand at her back, he guides her into the living room and to the couch. She sits, baby lying peacefully on her chest. He sits facing her with one leg tucked underneath him.

“What are you thinkin’?” It’s rare that he does not know.

“Bit astonished, clearly,” she replies. “She’s not – in over four years, she hasn’t…”

He tucks her hair behind her ear then rubs her shoulder. “What’s she like?”

Ellie looks up. “Alys? She’s – she was always quite lovely, to be honest. Always liked me. She was thrilled when Joe and I got married. Put far more into the wedding than she could afford. She was a nurse – that’s how come Joe ended up a paramedic, he was fascinated by her job as a child. And she was a single mum most of Joe’s life. His dad left them when he was about nine or so. No explanation either,” she says. “His sister was seven.”

“Joe has a sister?”

“Elin, yeah. She’s lived in Ireland from the time I met him, we never saw very much of her, just major holidays and required family events. She never really got to know the boys very well. Think she only met Fred once or twice.”

“But you saw a lot of Alys?” He asks.

Aila starts lazily chewing on Ellie’s dressing gown again. She strokes the baby’s hair and face absently.

“Yeah, quite a bit,” she answers. “Christ, she was a bloody godsend when I was pregnant with Fred. She came up nearly every weekend and kept Tom entertained while Joe and I just _slept_ basically. Being a pregnant detective – well, you remember what it was like for me with Aila, imagine what it was like without having my partner working alongside me to relieve the pressure. I was exhausted _all the time_ , poor Tom could barely get a single board game out of me. We actually talked about having Alys move in when Fred was born so Joe and I could both work, but we decided it would be too much. The house was too small, we were so cramped as it was. But she was a great help to me.”

Aila reaches her arm out toward Alec, flexing her fingers at him. He holds his hand out to her and she grabs onto it. Their hands rest together on Ellie’s arm.

“Where were _your_ parents?”

“Ah, mostly dealing with Lucy’s troubles. She was a right mess in the aftermath of the divorce. Worst she’s ever been,” Ellie explains. “Olly had planned to move straight to London after uni, you know. But he came back to keep an eye on her. It was too much for Mum and Dad, and Joe and I were swamped. I stopped speaking to her for a while.” She exhales. “Anyhow. Alys was very good to me.”

Alec nods slowly, trying to picture this time in her life with some difficulty.

“How did you, um – what happened with her after Joe was arrested?”

Ellie takes a deep breath and tightens her arm around Aila. “I think it was a day or two before I called her. I was in such a – well, _you_ know. It didn’t occur to me that someone would have to tell her and that someone would need to be me. I asked her to come to Broadchurch to tell her in person, Lucy stayed with me throughout. We were still staying the hotel. I think Lucy did most of the talking when we met, I couldn’t. It was awful. As agonizing as it is learning your husband did what Joe did, imagine Joe being your _son_. I can’t.”

Aila starts to squirm, breaking her hand away from Alec’s and trying to stick her fingers in Ellie’s mouth.

“Come here, darlin’,” he says quietly, pulling Aila over into his own lap.

“I couldn’t comfort her, you know? And she couldn’t comfort me, we were both sort of…alone in our shock and our grief,” Ellie continues, staring off. “She went back to Cardiff, we said we’d speak in a few days. But we didn’t. I think just neither of us could muster up the strength to ring the other. Elin sent me a text asking if I needed anything, but that was all I heard from her. Alys sent a card for Tom’s birthday a month or so later, and I rang her after. I asked if she’d spoken to Joe, she said no. But I was so messed up, so outside of myself, I wasn’t sure if I believed her. I convince myself that if she _did_ speak to Joe, she’d find a way to sympathize with him, to support him somehow. I imagined her showing up at the prison for visiting hours with a tin of biscuits.” She looks down at her hands, wringing them together in her lap. “I think we just didn’t what to expect from one another, and we were too wrapped up in our own feelings to help each other. So we just stopped speaking altogether. It felt easier, at the time. For me, especially, because I was already in the process of leaving Broadchurch, Tom was leaving _me_. It was just me and sweet little Fred against the world, felt like.” She swallows. “And that was that.”

Alec reaches for her hand.

“So many things I wish I’d done differently.”

He brings her hand to his lips and kisses it. Aila has settled on his chest and is yawning again.

“D’you want to, um…speak to her? See her,” Alec asks tentatively. When Ellie doesn’t respond, he continues. “I have a thought.”

She looks up.

“We could go to Cardiff. You and I. Roughly a two hour drive, yeah?” He suggests. “We go see her, speak to her, get a read on her. Then decide if it makes sense for her to come to Broadchurch. To see the boys.”

Ellie is looking down at their intertwined hands, her thumb rubbing over his knuckles. “Yeah?”

“I think it might give you some much-needed closure, either way.”

She nods. “Yeah.”

“All right.” He kisses her hand again. “I’ll go put this one down, you go straight to bed.”

*

Aila goes down easier this time, having already mostly dozed off on Alec’s chest.

Ellie changes into her pyjamas and crawls into her side of the bed. She’s staring at the ceiling by the time he comes in. He hangs up his dressing gown, throws on a pair of pyjama pants, then gets in beside her. She immediately curls up to him, laying her head on his shoulder. He reaches for the remote.

“Bit of _Midsommer Murders_ to clear our heads?”

“Yes, please.”

Much like Aila, Ellie falls asleep on his chest, after only ten minutes. Alec finishes the episode in the darkness, correctly guessing the culprit, then switches off the telly. He kisses her hair and falls asleep with his arm around her.

*

At work on Monday he hardly sees her. He’s been conducting performance reviews and she’s been holed up in her office with a stack of paperwork. Around 1pm, he shows up in her doorway with lunch in a plastic bag.

“Have a break comin’ to you,” he says, pulling out a boxed egg and pickle sandwich and tossing it onto her desk, along with a bottled lemonade, all she seems to drink these days.

She barely looks up. “Oh, ta.”

He smirks at her for a moment, in love with her concentration, then sits down on her couch and pulls out the salad he bought for himself. It’s odd, he thinks, how the tables have turned. Him showing up in _her_ office – his old office no less – with food. Sitting himself down on her couch whether she pays him any mind or not.

Though it’s been about two months since their respective promotions, they’ve found they still most enjoy meeting up in her office rather than his new one, though his couch is undoubtedly nicer. There’s just something so familiar about it, a steady comfort to be found there as things keep changing.

Alec stabs at a piece of romaine and then bites it off his fork, still staring at her.

“Ellie.”

She looks up. “Sorry.” She stands and picks up the sandwich and lemonade. “Bit distracted. Taking me ages to get through all this.” She sits herself on the couch next to him and starts to unbox it.

She looks knackered. He knows she slept fitfully the night before. She’s wearing black jeans (“sod it, name for me one person who will care,” she had said this morning while dressing, more to herself than to him) and a loose cotton v-neck. Her hair is haphazardly swept off her neck, a few pins in there to deal with her standard flyaways.

He silently watches her take a bite, then leans forward and plants a kiss just underneath her jaw. They share a smile.

“How’s your day been?” Ellie asks.

“Not my favourite day of the quarter, I’ll tell you that,” he replies, digging back into his salad.

“Looking forward to _my_ performance review.” She raises a saucy eyebrow at him.

He half-rolls his eyes, then takes a bite of tomato. “I don’t do your performance reviews,” he says. “For _exactly_ that reason.”

They eat quietly for a moment. He reaches for her lemonade in favour of his water.

She frowns. “Oi.”

“Needed a bit of a quench.”

Ellie snorts, covering her mouth. “I’ll give you a bit of a quench, you knob.”

“Did have a thought,” he says, handing the bottle back to her. “Was thinkin’ we ought to bring the baby with us to Cardiff on Saturday.”

She’s mid-bite. “The baby?”

“ _A_ , it’s Saturday, one of our only two days off a week and I’d not like to spend it without her,” he says. “Bein’ a full day’s affair and all. And _B_ , I think it’d be good for Alys to see her. To see me, to see her. To have a clearer picture of who you are now.”

“Who am I now?”

“You’re a married woman with a baby.”

Ellie purses her lips. “I was a married woman with a baby the last time she saw me.”

“You know what I mean,” Alec says, though her observation jolts him a bit. “If she comes to Broadchurch, she’ll have quite a bit to adjust to. Tom and Fred growin’ up, Daisy in general, a bloody _baby_ , the new house – twice the size of your old one, and – “

“I see what this is.” Ellie nods. “Showing off.”

He immediately grumbles, “Not showin’ off.”

“Yes, you want her to see how _happy_ I am now, without her son,” she says. “Gorgeous house, gorgeous family, gorgeous husband, brand new gorgeous baby, a promotion…”

Alec looks at her indignantly. “You should be proud you’re doin’ so well.”

“I _am_ – but I don’t think of it that way.”

“I just think it’ll be less of a shock for her if she meets the baby ahead of time,” he insists. “It’ll put things in perspective for her. Things you won’t have to put into words, things she’ll be able to see right off. You’re happy. ‘s no need for pity or the like.”

Ellie’s eyes widen. “ _Pity_.”

“El. Let’s just bring the baby, all right?”

Her horror turns into a smirk. “You just like that she gives you something to do in social situations.”

“……..Well.”

“Aha. You just want your little junior partner.” He stares into his salad then takes a bite. She reaches out and touches his knee. “We’ll bring Aila with us. Be a long journey for her though.”

“She survived Glasgow and back.”

“ _We_ survived Glasgow,” she corrects him.

Then Katie appears in the doorway. “Ellie.”

They turn toward her.

“We’ve got a shout down at Noland Farm.”

She nods. “Be just behind you.”

Katie disappears again.

“Right, then.” Ellie moves her sandwich from her lap to the couch. “I’m off.” She stands, then leans forward and kisses him briefly.

“Nigel stealin’ livestock again, you think?”

“ _Reappropriating_ , he says.” Ellie grabs her blazer off the back of her chair and pulls it on. “Heaven help us.” She grabs her back and heads for the door. “Remember Molly needs to be gone by five today. If I’m not back, can you – “

“I’ll be home.”

“Thank you.” She blows him a kiss as she walks out the door.

Alec takes a moment, looking at his salad, then reaches for her sandwich.

*

On Wednesday night, they are reading in bed side by side. Only Ellie has put her book down at least five minutes ago and has been staring off. At first, Alec pretends not to have noticed, to allow her to have some privacy with her thoughts. But as the ten minute mark approaches, he lays his book on his lap and looks at her over the rim of his glasses.

“Love.”

Ellie blinks then rubs her eyes. His hand falls to her wrist, thumb stroking the back of her hand.

“Early on in our marriage, when we were just stupid bloody twentysomethings, Joe and I had a fight and he fucked off to Cardiff at the weekend,” Ellie says, still looking straight ahead. “He went to Alys’ house. The next day, Alys showed up at our door. Said he was in the wrong and even _she_ didn’t want to share a roof with him.” She chuckles quietly at the memory. “We watched cheesy ‘80s films and ate ice cream until he finally came home with his tail between his legs.”

He squeezes her wrist.

“And when I had my miscarriage after Tom.” She glances over at him briefly. “She came to stay. Looked after Tom for weeks. She came without needing to be asked, then she left when things were better without needing to asked. Exactly what you want in a mother-in-law.”

Ellie places her book on her nightstand then slides down her pillow, looking up at the ceiling. Alec puts his away as well and joins her, still holding her hand.

“Fred called her Gan-Gan when he was small. Couldn’t say Gran, of course.” She glances over at Alec with a teary smile. “You remember how sweet he was?”

“Course I do.”

“More or less lost _both_ his grandmothers when he was two years old.”

Alec turns onto his side to face her. “Does Alys know you lost your mother?”

Ellie thinks about it. “Not sure why she would. I doubt it.”

Alec wishes his own mother were alive, for many reasons, but now to be a mother to Ellie as well. He drapes his arm across her waist, hand at her hip.

“I just hope that whatever they have in them of Joe, that those are the bits he got from Alys,” she says quietly.

“Seems to be the case so far, doesn’t it?”

Ellie nods.

“You’re an amazin’ mum,” he says, kissing her cheek, then nestling in her hair.

She places her hand atop his. “I had good role models.”

It’s unlike her to be this sentimental. To spend this much time on nostalgia. Especially nostalgia that’s tied up in so much pain.

“Are you nervous?” He asks.

“To see Alys again?”

“Mm.”

She lets out a quiet chuckle. “I must be, mustn’t I?” She turns onto her side to face him as well. He pulls the duvet up around them. “What if she’s changed?”

“Well. Almost certainly she _has_ ,” he replies. “ _You_ have.”

“Right.”

Alec reaches out and brushes her hair out of her face, moving to stroke her cheek.

“What if she’s angry at me for ---- “ She averts her eyes.

“For what?” She’s quiet, causing him to frown. “For moving on.”

Her eyes meet his again, silently confirming.

“What if she’s angry at you for moving on from her son who murdered an eleven-year-old boy?”

“I dunno.” Ellie sighs. “But here I am, happily married to the man who arrested him. With more or less a whole new family. What if she thinks…well, what if she now thinks what they said at the trial was true?”

His index finger runs down her jawline until his hand lands on her pillow. “That we were havin’ an affair. That we framed him to be together.”

She nods, a bit embarrassed.

“El, from the way you describe her, that seems unlikely to me,” he replies. “But even if she _does_ believe that…more’s the pity, eh? We were doin’ fine without her and we’ll continue to do so.”

“You have to admit it’s a little suspicious-looking now,” Ellie says. “During the trial it was ludicrous but _now_ , to anyone looking at it in retrospect…look at us all cozied up with our lovely home and our wee baby, Fred with your surname, the kids all happy as clams. Bit convenient, eh?”

His eyebrows narrow. “Ellie, not a bloody thing about it was convenient and you well know it.”

“I know,” she admits softly. “Sorry.”

“Come here.” He pulls her against him until she’s resting comfortably with her head on his shoulder. “Sleep now, yeah? These thoughts are doin’ you no good.”

She places her hand atop his scar – a habit, a gesture that brings her instant comfort. “All right.”

“You’ve no need to feel guilty for bein’ happy, El,” Alec says finally, summing up her feelings in a single sentence. He kisses the top of her head and switches off the lamp. “You deserve every bit of good we’ve got, and far more than that.”

“You’re so good,” she tells him, yawning.

He runs his fingers through her hair. “Sleep.”

*

On Friday night, they tell the kids.

Aila has been put to bed and mercifully gives them no trouble. Daisy, Tom, and Fred are sat together on the couch while Alec and Ellie are seated on the nearby loveseat. They’re going to see Tom and Fred’s grandmother, they tell them.

“Gran?” is Tom’s seemingly involuntarily reaction.

Just hearing him say the word makes Ellie a bit dizzy. She talks about the cards, holding a stack of them in her lap. Tom had forgotten about them.

“I know, lovely,” Ellie says. “Which seemed for the best.”

Fred is laying against Tom as he listens, deeply confused.

“She thinks it might be time you all saw each other again,” Alec explains calmly. “And she’s asked for a visit.”

Daisy is skeptical. She shifts about uncomfortably, tucking her feet under her thighs. “Why now? I don’t get it. It’s been years.”

“Suspect she needed some time. Just as Ellie and the boys did,” Alec says.

“She wants to come here?” Tom asks uncertainly.

Fred looks up at him, wide-eyed and vulnerable. “Is she nice?”

Tom is a bit startled. “Uh. Yeah. Yeah, she’s nice, she’s...she was, yeah. A good gran.”

“So,” Ellie says, taking a breath as if she’s starting again. “Alec and I will go see _her_ first. To make sure everything feels…right.”

Tom squints. “To like, test her?”

“Just so we all feel good about it,” Alec replies. “To be certain it’s the right thing for everyone.”

“And to make sure she’s not in contact with Joe,” Daisy presumes, folding her arms across her chest, ever her father's daughter.

“Yeah,” Alec admits, nodding. “That’ll be part of it.”

“We’ll go tomorrow. Alec and I,” Ellie continues. “We’ll take Aila with us. We’ll likely leave early and be back late. Your aunt Lucy will help you stay organized with all your Saturday things, get you where you need to be and keep tabs on you. So you’ll text her if you need anything immediate and make sure she knows where you are at all times, yeah?”

Tom and Daisy nod.

Then, Tom looks at his mother. “Will you be all right?”

The tenderness of the question makes her well up. “Course, lovely. Be just fine. And I’ll have Alec with me.”

Tom glances over at Alec as if they’re sharing some kind of man code. They both nod.

“Are there any questions?” She asks, looking at each one of them.

Slowly, thoughtfully, each one shakes their head.

*

Later, once the kids have all either been put to bed or put themselves to bed, Ellie finishes the washing up in the kitchen. As she dries the last pan, she hears soft music playing from the next room. She dries her hands then walks into the living room to investigate.

Alec is standing next to the stereo. (Yes, stereo. The man still insists upon CDs and even the occasional cassette tape.) Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey” is playing and he is looking extremely smug and pleased with himself.

She simply raises an eyebrow at him.

He rolls his eyes at her dubiousness and holds a hand out to her. “Ach, come on, Miller.”

With a smirk, she takes his hand and moves into his arms. “Don’t answer to that name anymore.”

“Bloody well right.” He nuzzles her cheek. His arm slips around her waist as his other hand holds hers to his chest.

“Since when do you initiate _dancing_?” Her expression is still just as incredulous as it was, only softened.

He guides her free hand up to the back of his next like she’s a ragdoll, then replaces his hand at her waist. “Since I thought about how one day we’ll be old and unsteady with broken hips and mobility issues and we won’t be able to anymore.”

Her eyes widen and she blinks at him. “…Romantic.”

“’m serious. One day we’ll be old and I’ll regret not dancin’ with you every minute I could’ve.”

She looks at him a moment, then smiles to herself as she lays her head on his shoulder. “You’re just trying to take my mind off tomorrow.”

He squeezes her hip. “Is it workin’?”

“No,” she replies honestly. “But I love you for the effort.”

He kisses her hand. “Whatever happens tomorrow, El, you’re goin’ to walk out of there with both a husband who worships you utterly and the most adorable baby in Britain. You can’t lose.”

Ellie smiles, gently nodding her head against his shoulder. Then she pulls her hand away from his, which makes him frown a bit. She unfastens a few of his shirt buttons then slips her hand inside, feeling the warmth of his chest, his steady heartbeat. He relaxes again and brings his now free hand to the small of her back, clasping it together with his other hand.

They dance quietly for a while, then as the song comes to end, Ellie says, “I’m gonna need you to _worship me_ good and proper tonight.”

He snorts, then kisses the top of her head. “Anythin’ to be of service to you, Mrs. Hardy.”

They continue to sway ever so slightly as the next song begins to play. Her hand slides downward from his chest and her thumb brushes back and forth over his nipple. He jolts a bit.

“Ah, you mean _now_.”

She looks up at him. Her lips are imminently kissable. “Mm-hmm.”

At the top of the stairs, Tom has just the barest view of his parents dancing in the living room. He can hear only the music, not the words out of their mouths. He watches, feeling both curious and satisfied by the sight, until he sees them break apart. Then he shoots up and scurries back down the hallway.

***


	3. Chapter 3

After Alec rolls out of bed to get the baby in the morning, Ellie takes a moment to relish having the entire bed to herself. She stretches her whole body out like a starfish, making a satisfied little moan, then sighs happily. Two minutes later, her alarm goes off and she remembers. This is not going to be a normal Saturday of hanging out with the loves of her life.

Cranky and groaning, she hops into the shower, if only to procrastinate. By the time she leaves her bedroom, she has made herself presentable. She has gotten dressed, blow dried her hair, even put on makeup. She wears a soft, loose grey cotton top with maroon skinny jeans, plus the long single pearl necklace her mother gave her when she went to uni.

In th hallway, she is stopped by a yawning Fred, faithfully carrying Rhino.

“Mumma.”

“Good morning, my love."

Fred grasps her shirt and leads her over to the top of the stairs to sit down. They sit side by side. Fred places Rhino upright between them.

“What’s the trouble?” Ellie asks.

“I had a really really really good dream,” Fred tells her. “Alec and I were on a boat.”

Ellie chuckles to herself. “Good luck with _that_ ,” she whispers.

Fred doesn’t seem to notice. “And we were fishing! For fish, not for dolphins.” Ellie nods as if she’s grateful to him for clearing that up. “And we had juice boxes and crisps. Alec drove the boat and he had a captain’s hat. And sometimes I was on his shoulders. Once we saw Iron Man in the water but then he went away. And then we sailed to a giant chocolate mountain and then I woke up.”

“Well,” Ellie exhales. “Sounds like a perfect dream.”

Fred nods his head, but looks down at his knees, suddenly shy.

“What is it, sweet?”

“I want to do something scary.”

She frowns and reaches for his little hands. “Tell me.”

He looks up, eyes wide and glistening. “I want to call Alec _Dad_ all the time. Not just my dad.”

Ellie bites her lip, blinking back tears. “You do.”

Fred nods. “Mm-hmm.” He slumps his body against her, hiding his face in her arm.

“I think you should, love,” she says finally. “If you want to, I think you should.”

“Would Alec be mad?”

“ _Sweetheart_ ,” Ellie replies. “Why on earth would Alec be mad? I reckon nothing would make him happier.”

He looks up at her again. “Will Tom be mad?”

She kisses the top of his head then strokes his hair. “No, love. I don’t think Tom will be mad.”

Fred just looks at her uncertainly. She grabs his hand.

“Come on then. Let’s go down and get some breakfast, eh?”

In the kitchen, Alec is in his pyjamas sitting next to Aila, who is in her high chair. Baby food drips down her chin, covers her bib and also half of the tray. When Ellie and Fred walk in, she turns to smile at them, allowing more to fall out of her mouth. Alec sighs. Ellie snorts and covers her mouth with her hand.

“It’s like trying to feed a baby bird,” Alec remarks, shaking his head. “She thinks she’s soooo funny.” He tickles between her neck and shoulder causing her to turn her head and trap his finger there. “So bloody _clever_ , aren’t you.” She giggles. “Most glorious sound in the world. So the joke’s on me.”

Ellie kisses the top of his head. “Joke’s always on you, my love.”

Alec grumbles, then turns his head in Fred’s direction. “Mornin’, lad.”

Fred is dragging his little kitchen step ladder closer to his desired cupboard. Ellie grabs a paper towel and wipes down Aila’s face.

“I ought to feed her myself anyway, ‘fore we get on the road,” she says.

Alec removes the baby bib as Ellie cleans her off. Fred stands at the top of the step ladder, reaching upward. Ellie pulls Aila out of the high chair and sits down to nurse her.

“Daddy, can you help me?” Fred pleads.

Without thinking, Alec immediately stands, then stops. He glances at Ellie, who is smiling.

“…What’d you say, lad?”

Fred turns and looks at him. “Can you help me get my cereal, Daddy?”

Ellie bites her bottom lip as she watches, still grinning. Alec briefly stares off and exhales, then goes straight to Fred.

“Course, mate.” He grabs Fred’s cereal from the highest shelf and hands it to him.

Fred smiles his signature closed lip smile, remarkably reminiscent of his little sister’s. “Thanks.”

Then Alec suddenly pulls the boy against him tightly, kissing his hair. They stay like that for a moment. Ellie wipes away a stray tear with the back of her hand, lost in the moment until Aila bites her with her one single tooth.

“ _Oi_ ,” she hisses.

Aila looks up at her innocently and starts slapping her breast happily once the attention is back on her. Then Alec lifts Fred off the step ladder and onto the floor. Fred takes his cereal and his bowl and brings them over to the table. Then he goes to the fridge and gets the milk. Ellie watches, amazed at how grown up he suddenly is, all of six years old.

Alec stands still by the counter, one hand on his hip, looking down at the floor with a smile on his face. Ellie could swear he’s blushing. Then Fred spills the milk and it splashes on the table.

Alec rushes to him, grabbing a tea towel on his way. “All right there, lad, come on.”

Ellie watches him clean up after Fred with equal parts admiration and amusement. Once he’s through, he heads for the door, but not before glancing back and forth between Fred and Ellie nursing Aila.

“…Gonna go get dressed,” he says finally.

“Go on then, _Daddy_ ,” Ellie replies with a wink.

Lucy slips in through the front door as Alec is passing on his way to the stairs.

“Christ,” he curses under his breath, startled. “Keep forgettin’ you’ve got a key.”

“Bloody better well have,” Lucy retorts. “All that free child-minding I do for ya.”

He looks at her a moment, then sheepishly continues up the stairs.

“I’m done!” Fred exclaims, having shoveled only half of his cereal into his mouth.

Lucy enters the kitchen just as Fred is hopping down from his chair.

“You’ve hardly touched it!” Ellie complains.

“Auntie Lucy will get us pizza for lunch!”

Lucy leans against the doorway. “Oh will she?”

Fred turns and smiles up at her angelically. “Hi, Auntie Lucy.”

She playfully pats his shoulder. “Go on.”

Fred scurries out of the room. Lucy brings his bowl to the sink then switches on the kettle.

“All right, Luce?”

Aila unlatches from Ellie and tips her head backwards to smile at Lucy.

“Christ she’s a cheeky thing.”

Ellie switches Aila over to her other breast. “Don’t I know it.”

“Tea?”

“Ta.”

Lucy leans against the counter. “How’re you feeling about today then?”

“Well, if the last ten minutes are any indication of the future, I’m feeling properly chuffed about it all,” Ellie says happily. Off her sister’s impatient glare, she continues. “Fred’s decided he’d like to call Alec _Dad_. And just surprised him with it. Should have seen his _face_ , Luce, my god. The man nearly melted where he stood.”

“Bollocks,” Lucy mutters. “That _is_ sweet.”

“’Daddy, can you help me get the cereal?’” Ellie repeats. “I nearly died.”

Lucy smiles and nods. Then says, “Get much sleep last night?”

“I am lucky to have a husband who knows exactly how to soothe my restlessness.”

“…Don’t wanna know.”

The kettle whistles and Lucy prepares two mugs of tea.

“Still think it’s a good idea not to warn Alys first?”

Aila scratches at Ellie’s chest contentedly and Ellie thinks it’s time to trim her nails. “Neither option is a good one, frankly. Just need to rip the plaster off, I think. We don’t want to give her time to… _prepare_.”

Lucy moves to the table, sets their teas down, then sits. “You mean like if she’s secretly harbouring Joe.”

“Well. Not so extreme as that, but there may be little signs throughout the house that may indicate…what their current relationship is,” Ellie replies.

“So you and Alec are going to go full detective on her.”

“We may put our skills to use, yes.”

“Well.” Lucy takes a sip of her tea. “I’m certain it’ll be a genuine thrill for her to have her son’s ex-wife show up at her door unannounced with her new husband and tiny baby. You ought to sell tickets.”

*

Ellie insists on driving over Alec’s objections. The baby does fairly well, falling asleep within moments of them turning on talk radio. It’s a beautiful drive, from Dorset to Cardiff. Ellie does her best to stay present, to focus on the road, on the scenary, on her breath. She does the drive without Sat Nav, purely from memory. He’s suspicious but chooses to keep his mouth shut, wisely.

Alys Miller has a small cottage near the coast. It all feels remarkably like Broadchurch, only about ten times the size. The path to the house is winding. Ellie parks the car about halfway up, not wanting to announce their arrival prematurely. She sits for a moment as Alec gets out of the car to retrieve Aila. The baby wakes up with a whine and a frown, just like her mother, but is quickly soothed by her father’s voice.

“Take a look at this, darlin’,” he says, hoisting her into his arms then closing the car door. “Not a bad view, eh?”

She lays her head on his shoulder drowsily, looking placidly at the lush surroundings. Ellie gets out of the car, slinging the baby bag over her shoulder. She holds up a pacifier and sticks it in Aila’s mouth.

“This’ll need to tide her over,” she says. “Can’t nurse her now.”

Alec nods at the bag. “There’s a bottle in there.”

She exhales gratefully and drops her head to his chest. With his free hand, he rubs her back.

“All gonna be fine,” he assures her.

“Mmmm- _muh_ ,” Aila says, reaching out to pat Ellie’s hair.

Ellie lifts her head with a crooked smile, then kisses the baby’s cheek, then the corner of Alec’s mouth. He grabs her hand as they walk up the hill to the cottage.

There’s no doorbell. She takes a breath, then raises her hand to knock.

She’s about to knock a second time when the door finally opens.

There Alys stands, in slacks and a cardigan, with her shoulder-length gray hair and Joe’s eyes. _Her_ own eyes, Alec supposes, which she gave to Joe.

And to Tom.

“ _Ellie_.”

“Hi, Alys.”

“I – “ She looks at Ellie, then Alec and Aila, then back to Ellie, with her mouth slightly open. It’s too much for her brain to process all at once. “Ah. I, um.”

“Sorry to show up unannounced,” Ellie says, a bit red in the face. “We got your card. Thought it best to…pay _you_ a visit first.”

“ _We_ ,” Alys repeats. She looks up at Alec again. The baby is a bridge too far for her comprehension.

“Yes, this is Alec Hardy – “

“ _DI_ Alec Hardy.”

“DCI, now,” Alec says, and though he does not say it unkindly, he instantly regrets it.

“And my husband,” Ellie says.

Alys stares at her, open-mouthed, then exhales. “ _Oh_.”

Ellie briefly looks at her shoes then back up again. “And our daughter, Aila.”

Alys looks around as if she’s trying to find a way to escape. “I’m sorry. I, um. This is just all a bit…”

“I know,” Ellie says, suddenly feeling guilty for not calling ahead. “So sorry, it – we don’t mean to shock you, I promise.”

Aila smiles at Alys and her pacifier falls out of her mouth. Deftly, Alec catches it. Alys is quite disarmed by the moment, mostly by Aila’s face. She takes a step backward, allowing them space to enter.

“Come in, come in, please.”

Alys silently leads them through the small foyer to the living room. Ellie takes in the familiar scene. Alec is cataloguing every little detail away for later.

“Please sit.” Alys gestures to the couch. “Tea?”

“Thank you,” Ellie replies.

“Great, thanks,” Alec says.

Alys nods, grateful to have something to do. “Just give me a moment.” Then she disappears into the next room.

Alec and Ellie sit close together on the couch, looking around like they’re in a museum. In Alec’s lap, Aila reaches for her feet and tries to hold onto them as she kicks them at the same time. It’s difficult.

“No photos of Joe,” Alec says quietly, after a moment.

“Bodes well.” Then she spots one on a distant bookshelf. “One there. Him and Elin.”

“Must only be five or six there.”

Ellie nods. There are no others that they can spot. There are, however, a few photos of Tom and Fred. It’s eerie, Alec thinks, to see photos of their boys in a relative stranger’s house.

Alys returns with a tea tray and sets it down on the coffee table.

“Please, help yourself to…” She trails off, gesturing to the accoutrements.

“Thanks a lot,” Alec says. He fixes both his and Ellie’s cups as they like it. Aila watches him with rapt attention.

“Um. Well.” Alys forces a smile. “You look well, Ellie. Very well.”

“Thank you. So do you. Like what you’ve done with your hair.”

“Oh, thanks.” Alys looks at the baby. “How old is she?”

“Seven months,” Ellie replies. “Eight nearly.”

Looking at Alys’ face, Ellie has the feeling the she is silently trying to remember exactly how old she is. But then Alys returns her gaze to Aila.

“She’s gorgeous.”

Ellie nods and smiles curtly. “Thank you.”

“What did you say her name was?”

“Aila.”

Alys frowns with concentration and sloshes the word around in her mouth. “EYE-luh….EYE-luh. How do you spell it?”

“…A-I-L-A.”

“Scottish,” Alec says, with unintentional gruffness.

“Sounds Welsh.”

“Scottish.” Okay, this time it was intentional.

“What’s her middle name then?”

Alec can already picture her clearly as a mother-in-law with the incessant questioning. He finds her vaguely reminiscent of Tess’s mum. 

“Grace,” Ellie says.

“Aila Grace,” Alys muses, listening to how it sounds.

“Aila Grace Hardy,” Alec adds. Ellie fixes him with a slight eye roll.

“Is Grace your mother’s name?” She asks him. “I know it isn’t Ellie’s mum’s.”

“No,” he replies.

“She isn’t named after anyone, Alys,” Ellie tells her. “We didn’t want her to be beholden to anyone.”

Alys frowns. “Like Tom is.”

Both Tom and Fred were given middle names for their grandfathers. Thomas Joseph Miller, of course also his father’s name, and Fred David Miller. Ellie fought the tradition both times, complaining that the names didn’t flow, didn’t have a ring to them. But she was heavily drugged and persuaded otherwise.

“Well. Yes.” Ellie folds her hands in her lap.

Alys stirs her tea quietly for a moment. Alec nudges Ellie, silently suggesting she take a sip of her. She obliges.

“Bopbopbopbopbop,” Aila babbles, still enthralled with her own toes. Her socks are mismatched and she seems to realize this. Alec puts her pacifier back into her mouth. He doesn’t normally like to quiet her, but her adorable nonsense words are not going to be of any use to them at the moment. Aila leans back to look up at him curiously, stretching out in his arms.

Alys lets out a breath. “And how long have you two…been married.” Even the question feels like an accusation.

“Month or so,” Ellie replies, sitting up straight.

Alys raises an eyebrow.

“Together two years now,” she explains.

“I see.”

“I’m Ellie Hardy now,” she adds, for good measure.

Alys nods her head slowly. “Good. That’s good, I’m glad for you.” She’s tentative, but it does seem at least somewhat like she means it. “Must be nice for the boys as well. Are they happy?”

“Very,” Ellie says firmly. “Fred’s a Hardy too. We’re quite settled, all of us. Alec’s daughter as well.”

Alys turns her attention to Alec. “You have a daughter of your own?”

“All of our daughter now,” he replies, with a quick smile at Ellie. “Daisy. Nearly eighteen now.”

“Off to uni in the fall,” Ellie says.

Something suddenly seems to whir to life inside Alys. “Sorry, did you say Fred’s a _Hardy_ now?”

“Yes.” Ellie crosses one leg over the other. “His choice. Entirely.”

Alys says nothing. She takes a long sip of her tea.

“Alec is the only father he’s ever truly known, Alys,” she says. “Since he was less than two years old. And Alec’s raised him right alongside me these last two years.”

Alys has a hardened expression on her face and she looks like she wants to argue, but she can’t. “Yes, I guess that makes sense, doesn’t it.”

Aila wriggles restlessly in Alec’s arms, tipping her head back to look at Ellie upside down with a goofy smile on her face. He gently sits her back up.

“Sorry,” Ellie says. “She’s a bit of a ham, I’m afraid.”

“Doesn’t get it from either one of _us_ ,” Alec notes, sticking her pacifier back in her mouth.

Alys offers Aila a soft smile. “She looks like you,” she says to Ellie with a sort of bemusement. “Though she’s not got your hair, has she.”

Aila turns again and holds her arms out to Ellie with a needy grunt. Ellie reaches for her and pulls her into her lap. Aila looks triumphant.

“No,” Ellie says, stroking Aila’s straight, wispy hair. “Lucky for her.” 

Aila looks up at her adoringly and Ellie instantly feels a sense of calm wash over her.

“You, um…” Alys clears her throat. “Forgive all the questions, but – “

“No, no,” Alec says. “That’s why we’re here. Get all the questions out of the way, get everythin’ out in the open.”

Alys gives him a vague, terse nod. “Right. It’s a bit odd, surely you realize, that you’ve two have come together in this way, all things considered.”

“We did not have an affair,” Ellie says firmly.

“Ah, no, I know.” Alys looks down at her lap. “I know. But even so there’s something…jarring about it, you know.”

Surreptitiously, without looking at her, Alec hooks his index finger to Ellie’s.

“Well. We can’t all be in a romantic comedy,” Ellie retorts. “A copper and a paramedic who keep running into each other at crime scenes. _We have to stop meeting this way…_ ”

He squeezes her finger. She’s going off the rails a bit.

“It must be difficult for you,” Alys clarifies.

Ellie laughs derisively. “Everything’s difficult for me, my ex-husband is a murderer and peodophile.”

“ _Alleged_ peodophile.”

Ellie blinks at her. “What.”

“There was no evidence of sexual abuse, not of any kind, and yes I _know_ that doesn’t mean it _wouldn’t_ have happened but the fact is it _didn’t_ and I…” Alys wrings her hands together in her lap. “I have to hold on to that.”

Ellie is about to protest when Alec squeezes her finger again. She looks down at the baby in her lap and takes a breath. Maybe two.

“All right,” she says.

“I don’t know what it was like for you,” Alys tells her. “But I can imagine. And if I’d have _been_ there – “

Ellie gets her back up again. “ _What_?”

“If you had called me – “

“If _you_ had called _me_ \- !”

There is a tense pause between them, both women locked together in a heated stare.

“All right.” Alec lifts the baby out of Ellie’s arms and stands. “We’ll give you two a minute. All right if we…?”

Alys snaps out of it and nods. “Of course. Feel free to go out to the garden. It’s colourful. She might like it.”

Alec nods, shares one last look with Ellie, then disappears.

“Alys.” Ellie tries to modulate her tone. “I had the _boys_ to deal with. A bloody eleven-year-old and a _one-_ year-old whose father had just been arrested for murder! I couldn’t – I couldn’t see a thing past them, couldn’t even see _myself_ in the mirror. We were living in a sodding _hotel_. All our friends had turned against us. I couldn’t – there was no way for me to – “

“Yes.” Alys is staring at her hands. “Yes. You’re right.”

“Those boys _adored_ their father,” Ellie says, now powerless against her cracking voice. “Worshipped him. When Fred woke in the night, it was Joe he called for. The news _destroyed_ Tom, and poor Fred just had the rug yanked out from under him and I couldn’t explain to him why. Can you imagine that? Seeing your father every day, him being the one who takes care of you all day, and then suddenly never seeing him again?” She takes a breath. “Taking care of those boys was all I could manage.”

Alys remains quiet.

“Do you know that Tom refused to live with me after that?”

She looks up.

“That’s right, he blamed me. Went to stay with Lucy and Olly. For more than six months,” Ellie tells her. “Wouldn’t speak to me at all.”

Alys blinks. “You let him?”

“I – “ She opens and closes her mouth in quick succession. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

Alys reaches for her tea and takes a long sip. Ellie does too.

“It took me a long time to stop blaming myself, let alone convince Tom not to,” she says. “A long time and loads of therapy. Now I can see what good there was in my marriage to Joe. The happy times. I can think on them, mostly, without cringing. They’re all just a part of my human history now, and the boys’. You can’t erase Joe without erasing them. And that’s how I’ve been able to accept it all.”

“And Alec?” Alys asks finally.

“We were mates,” she replies. “Colleagues, mainly. Then mates. Sort of. It was a good while before we were anything more.”

“And he’s still your boss, is he.”

Ellie almost laughs. “Apparently. I’ve been made DI now though, so I’ve plenty of authority on my own.”

“Good for you.” Alys manages a smile. “Well done.”

“Thanks.” She takes another sip of her tea. “Um. Another thing happened, shortly after the trial.” She pauses. “My mother passed.”

“Oh,” Alys exhales. “Oh, Ellie. I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you, yeah.”

“What happened?”

“Stroke,” Ellie replies. “Series of strokes really.”

“How awful. Oh.”

“Then Dad moved in with us for a while.” Ellie traces the rim of her mug with her index finger. “So it’s been…it’s been a lot, an eventful few years.”

“Yes, I’ll say,” Alys replies. “I’m sorry.”

“A lot of it good,” Ellie finds herself clarifying, unexpectedly. “I lost everything but then I fell in love. A massive, crashing, tidal wave sort of love.”

Alys smiles a bit bashfully. “It’s all inside that baby, isn’t it?”

Ellie smiles in return, tears in her eyes, nodding.

Alys nods back. “Is he a good dad?”

Ellie’s smile turns into a grin. “The best.”

“Good.” She reaches for her mug again. “Good.”

“Alys.” Ellie chews on the inside of her cheek. “You’ve not…you’ve not had any contact with him. Have you?”

Alec appears in the doorway with Aila. The women are aware of his presence, but do not acknowledge it in the moment.

“No,” Alys replies, putting her mug down. “None at all.”

“…None at all.”

“The last time I spoke to my son was on the phone, two days before he was arrested.”

Ellie’s eyes widen a bit. “Really.”

Alys nods. “He tried to ring me a few times from prison, I didn’t accept. Sent a few letters while he was in there. One letter after he was out. Nothing since then.”

Ellie is astonished. She’d thought at least she’d had some contact with him during the trial, even just once.

“What about Elin?”

“You’ll have to ask her to be sure,” Alys replies. “But I think you’ll get the same answer.”

Alec moves further into the room and returns to his spot on the couch beside Ellie. Aila holds her arms out to her again and Ellie pulls her into her own lap.

“Why now?” Alec asks. “Why d’you want to see the boys now, after all this time?”

“Well.” Alys fidgets in her seat, shifting her weight. “I figure it’s been time enough. For us all to heal. To move on. I never wanted to let my grief overwhelm them, I didn’t want to project it upon them. And I didn’t want them to worry, Tom especially. To worry about my motives or feel comfortable having a part of his father in his life again. But now that you’re…well, frankly, you all seem to be doing even better than I’d hoped. I’d like to be a presence in their lives again, if they’ll have me.”

Alec and Ellie turn to each other. Something silently passes between them.

“I think…” Ellie begins. “I think that’ll be fine. Think it would be good for them, even. To have a grandmother in their lives again.”

Alys seems to exhale a sigh of relief. “You do.”

“But I also think they need some time to get used to the idea,” she continues. “Especially Fred. We need to keep talking to them about it. And then, in the summer perhaps, you can come for a weekend. We can’t put you up, five bedrooms all occupied alas, but Lucy might consider it. Then you can spend some real time with them, get to know them again, and they you. But they’ll need to call the shots.”

Alys nods. “Okay.”

“They’ll need to set their own boundaries.”

“Fine.”

“Good.” Ellie looks at Alec, to see if he has anything to add. He simply nods in assent.

Aila spits out her pacifier and starts clawing at Ellie’s shirt, mouthing hungrily at her breasts.

“Well,” Ellie exhales with a laugh. “She’s got better timing than either one of _us_ , at least. S’pose we’d better be off.”

Alys straightens. “It’s such a long drive, do you – “

“We’ll stop for lunch,” Alec says. “Head into town a bit before heading back. It’s not so bad.”

“Right.”

He stands, bringing a hand to Ellie’s back as _she_ stands, as if she needs steadying. Alys faces them, arms dangling awkwardly at her side. Alec’s rare empathetic instinct kicks in and he pulls Aila into his own arms. Aila moans unhappily, holding her arm out and flexing her fingers in the direction of Ellie’s chest.

Arms now free, Ellie steps forward and tentatively hugs Alys. Alys pulls her in close, squeezing her eyes shut and balling her fingers into fists at her back.

“I’ll call,” Ellie says quietly.

They break apart, Alys still grasping Ellie’s hand. “Thank you.”

After they share a teary smile, they pull their hands away, and Alys looks to Alec, who is currently trying to keeping Aila from flinging herself out of his arms.

“Good to formally meet you, Alec.”

Ellie grabs hold of Aila again so he can shake hands with Alys.

“And you,” he says.

“As for _you_ , my dear.” Alys leans toward Aila. “I hope we’re going to be friends.”

Aila buries her face between Ellie’s breasts.

“I’ll take that as a hearty agreement.”

Within a few minutes, they are sitting in the car halfway down the hill. Ellie nurses Aila while Alec is looking up nearby restaurants on his mobile.

“You did well, I thought,” he says, adjusting the glasses on the bridge of his nose as he scrolls on his mobile.

“Thanks, boss.”

He turns to briefly make a face at her, then back to the screen. Aila starts slapping Ellie’s breast, causing Ellie to grab onto her hand and still its movements. Aila doesn’t seem to mind this.

“You knew bringing her would make our time short,” she says finally. “That’s why you wanted her.”

Alec puts the mobile on his lap and pulls his glasses off. “What?”

“You knew we wouldn’t be able to linger, not with the baby around.”

“Not true,” he replies, mildly insulted. “I brought a bottle with us. We could’ve given that to her instead.”

“You knew she wouldn’t take a bottle with my tits in such close proximity,” Ellie argues. “She’d have thrown a massive tantrum.”

“…Well.” Alec grimaces sheepishly, then picks up the mobile again. “There’s a café not far.”

“Wanker,” she mutters.

Aila sputters a laugh. She finds the word hilarious coming out of her mother’s mouth. Every time.

*

They take their time at the café. A nice, leisurely late lunch. For as long as their restless baby will let them. She is mostly well-behaved in restaurants. There is so much for her to see and hear, and she stil finds is quite fascinating to watch people eat.

Realizing that they’ve already warned the kids and Lucy that they would be home late, they decide to stick to their promise. Back at the car, Alec pulls the pram out of the boot and they decide to explore Cardiff a bit on foot. Aila falls asleep within about ten minutes. Alec pushes the pram while Ellie loosely holds onto his arm. They chatter about everything around them, the people they pass on the streets. Little is said about Alys or Joe. For a few hours, they feel like they’re on a mini holiday.

They stop at a bench near the river. Ellie tugs on Alec’s dress shirt – she’s gotten him to at least ditch the jacket – and she grins up at him cheekily. He glances around briefly, surreptitiously casing the area.

“ _No one knows us here_ ,” Ellie reminds him in a whisper.

He leans down to her level, brushing her hair back with hand, then placing it on her cheek. He kisses her soft and slow, soon growing bolder and deepening it. Just two middle-aged people snogging on the street while their baby sleeps in her pram.

As they slowly separate, Ellie is grinning. Then Alec notices something out of the corner of his eye. Across the street, just outside the Tesco, Alys is standing with a paper bag full of groceries in her arms, watching them. Ellie turns to see what he sees.

“Oh, cripes,” she mutters under her breath.

Alys awkwardly holds a hand up. They return the wave, Ellie bright red and Alec cringing. Then Alys quickly continues walking in the opposite direction.

“ _No one knows us here_ ,” Alec mocks her.

She hides her face against his arm, but she’s laughing.

*

When they finally arrive at home, the kids are all in bed. Ellie sends Lucy off with a thank you and a promise to ring her with all the details in the morning. Alec heads to the kitchen to make them both a cup of chamomile tea while she goes upstairs to put Aila to bed.

Ellie cradles Aila in her arms in the darkness, sitting in the rocking chair. The baby is calm, pacifier in her mouth, but she looks up at her mother with her massive brown eyes, as if waiting for something.

“You were a very good sport today, my sweet girl,” Ellie tells her softly, rocking back and forth. “So sorry we destroyed your sleep schedule."

Aila reaches up and tangles her fingers in a strand of Ellie’s hair.

“You’re the only one of your siblings without a grandmother now. But that’s all right. Daddy will be practically a granddad soon anyway.” Aila lets out a cough/laugh, as if she understands. “Yes, he will, he’s such a grumpy old sod anyway, isn’t he?” Ellie coos at her. “Oh yes he is.” She keeps rocking. “And who knows, maybe Alys will take a shine to you, how could she not? You’re impossible to resist.” Aila's eyelids begin to grow heavy. Her hand falls from Ellie’s hair. “But you have to stay this tiny forever, understand? No more growing up. You just go on and be our cheeky little miracle baby ‘til the end of time, okay?” Her eyes close. “Good girl, Aila.”

*

Ellie creeps quietly into their bedroom and closes the door. Alec is sitting on the bed, partly undressed, in his briefs and open dress shirt.

“Fast asleep,” Ellie says with great satisfaction.

Alec holds an open envelope to her. It’s addressed to “Mum & Alec.”

She frowns curiously. “What’s this?” She asks, taking it.

“Open it.”

She pulls out the note from inside, her eyes scanning over the words urgently. Then her jaw drops. Tears glisten in her eyes.

“He wants to be a Hardy.”

Alec nods, watching her.

“Tom wants to be a Hardy,” she says again. Then she looks up. “Our very own Tom Hardy.”

He smiles. “Yeah.”

Ellie is somehow both laughing and crying at once. She drops the letter on the bed and moves closer to him, standing between his legs.

“All six of us, Hardys every one,” she states proudly, taking his face in her hands.

She kisses his forehead, then he leans into her, burying his face in her chest. She rubs his back absently, mind racing.

“You were so good today,” Ellie tells him, one hand raking through his hair. “Calm, steady, thoughtful. So lovely with the baby. I was very nearly jealous of _myself_.”

He chuckles quietly against her. Then he looks up. “Feel sort of like we’ve hit a milestone today.”

“Yes, though I could hardly name it.”

“No.”

Ellie strokes his hair back off his forehead then kisses him softly. He scoots backward on the mattress and she climbs onto his lap. He unbuttons her jeans then pulls down the zipper, just as she pushes him down on the bed. His hands slide up underneath her top as they kiss, running up and down her spine, then one slips down into her jeans and cups her arse. Ellie trails kisses along his jaw, down to his neck. He sighs happily, then she begins sucking at the pulse point of his throat. She rocks her hips back and forth, encouraging his hardening cock and he squeezes her arse in approval.

After a few minutes, he flips them over, working on ridding her of her jeans without removing his lips from her skin.

He feels lighter, Ellie thinks. Like something has lifted. He’s lithe and agile. He’s happy.

He sits up, yanking her jeans all the way down and off with a satisfied smile on his face. She grins back at him. He’s a beautiful sight.

Alec shrugs off his dress shirt, then dives back down to continue kissing her.

“How do you feel?” She asks a bit breathlessly.

“How do I _feel_?” He’s rubbing his cock between her legs.

She chuckles. “ _Besides_ incredibly turned on by your super fit wife.”

He plants kisses all over her chest. “Do I have to be anythin’ besides that,” he murmurs.

But she knows he is. She knows he thinks he might cry if he talks about it. And he just wants to feel _light_.

She does too.

He shoves his hand into her knickers without warning and she gasps with delight.

“All right then?” He asks cheekily.

She sighs, bucking her hips into his hand. “All right then.”

He props himself up at her side as his fingers slowly stroke and begin to explore. “Get your bloody top off,” he growls, but his lips are still curled in a smile.

She grabs the hem of her top and lifts it over her head. He unabashedly stares at her breasts while his fingers do their work. His erection throbs at her side. She comes far more quickly than usual, watching him salivate over her breasts and rake over her body as he crooks his fingers inside her. It’s incredibly arousing to feel so desired. He’s inside her as soon as she comes down from her orgasm, kissing her over and over.

“So bloody lucky,” she gasps, mostly to herself.

“What,” he responds, mid-thrust.

She throws her head back, closing her eyes. “To have a husband who will just kiss me for hours and hours.”

He goes back to kissing her throat. “Days and days if you fancy.”

Though his pace has started off fairly rapid, when their eyes meet again, he reduces it. He moves slowly inside her, she rocks her hips along with him. Both her hands cup his face and she kisses his nose, his cheeks, beneath his eyes, and he seems to melt into her.

“Oh, love,” he exhales, his face falling to her neck again. And she smiles. That’s all he has to say and it’s still somehow deeply moving to her.

“Faster now,” she whispers in his ear.

He obeys.

Then she smiles. “Now deeper.”

He plants a sloppy kiss on her lips then obeys.

Within a few minutes, he comes first, with a massive groan of great relief and pleasure, but he stays with her until she’s ready, hand reaching between them to help her along. She comes quietly, in waves, his thumb rubbing at her clit until she has to push it away. Then he collapses upon her. Still, he feels lighter than usual.

She keeps one hand in his sweaty hair, the other trailing down his back. He lays his head on her collarbone, staring off.

“We’ve got a whole house of Hardys,” Ellie says softly after a few moments.

She can feel him grin. “House of Hardys. We can get one of those name plate things for the house, carve it in, put at it at the front door.”

“No,” she says automatically.

“Get one of those family crests, coat of arms thing, with like a Celtic Knot and a giant elk on it – “

“No.”

“What.”

“Too far.”

He sighs. “Fine.”

***


End file.
